Pennsylvania Turnpike takes a turn toward the future

With the Thanksgiving holiday just passed, hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania residents hit local interstates and toll roads to celebrate with their extended families and friends.

Today, when it comes to these toll roads, there are two kinds of motorists -- those with E-ZPass (60 percent) and those without it (40 percent). Those with it barely slow down as they pass under scanners that charge their accounts electronically. Those without it, find themselves sitting in lines -- sometimes long ones -- waiting for a human toll taker to accept cash and make change.

Well, if the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has its way, those lines will soon be disappearing. Along with them so will 700 to 800 toll-taking jobs.

Just two weeks ago, acting commission CEO Craig Shuey announced a plan that would have the turnpike tollbooth free by 2018.

Color us all for it. This is, after all, the 21st century. There was a time when there was no more an efficient way to collect tolls than to have a human being standing or sitting in a toll both all day and night and putting out their hand. That day is gone. In the age of smart phones, digital cameras, and electronic banking there is a better -- a much better -- way.

There will be, of course, transition costs. But in the long run they will pale in comparison to the cost of paying the salaries, health care and pension benefits of the professional toll taker.

As it is, it costs the turnpike commission $67 million a year to run the toll plazas. By 2014, that cost jumps to $77 million thanks mostly to those salaries and benefits.

For years, the technology has been available to make toll taking faster, cheaper and more convenient. Healthier, too.

Obviously, having a job that requires inhaling car fumes all day can’t be the healthiest of occupations. But it’s worse than that. Traffic congestion negatively affects the health of residents who live nearby, especially the health of children.

According to study published in the American Economic Journal, E-ZPass-type tolling is credited with cutting down traffic congestion and hence the local pollution that comes with it. Researches found that expectant mothers who lived within two miles of an E-ZPass plaza, as opposed to a traditional stop-and-go toll station, gave birth to healthier, heartier babies.

For decades toll-taker unions have managed to improve the pay and working conditions for their members. But in some places it has gotten to the point where the amount of toll money coming in is barely enough to pay the workers, let alone for road and bridge repairs that the tolls were originally levied to pay for.

Last year, the New York Post reported one toll taker for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey made $102,000 in one year, with $40,000 of it being overtime. At least four others collected over $90,000 for the year.

It can be argued these hard-working toll takers deserved every penny they got. After all, being in a toll booth all day is boring, unhealthy work and deserves good compensation. But the better argument is that human beings shouldn’t be put to work doing boring jobs that machines can do better, faster and cheaper.

As it is, Pennsylvania is starting to charge non-E-ZPassers more for the privilege of sitting in line than it does E-ZPass customers to zip by toll stations. It’s gotten to the point that nonusers can almost hear the E-Zs laughing and yelling “So long, suckers!” as they go by.

Come 2018, you old-school types will still be able to go without E-ZPass. Turnpike cameras will take a photo of your license plate and send you a bill, otherwise known as a ticket.